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learning to speak Spanish. You move to a country, you don’t know or speak the language, what happens?

New discoveries and experiences. New horizons. New life. Travelling is a wonderful educator. A few years back we moved down to Central America. The only words we knew in Spanish were Gracias, Por favor and cerveza.

Thirsting for new found adventures. New ways. Warm climate. Especially when you grew up in Canada. Freezing your back side at -40 is not my idea of a great time.
Absolutely foreign concepts to many of our Latino friends.

Learning new ways of living life. New ways of thinking. Has been one of the greatest benefits of learning how to speak Spanish.

All of the small disoveries. Dave Clark, fluent in Spanish, explains in his recent discovery.

“Where I currently live in the western U.S., there are many rest homes and assisted living centers nearby where elderly people go to live.

Within about a four mile radius of our business, there are around five facilities with one right next door to our building.

In the assisted living facilities, the people that live there are semi-independent as they usually have their meals cooked for them, entertainment planned, and rides to go places.

On the other hand, usually in rest homes, elderly people need more constant care, both physical and medical.

Both rest homes and assisted living centers are usually very costly.

When I lived in Latin America, I asked a lot of the locals if there were “rest homes” in the area.

It took me a while to even figure out what the word for “rest home” was, because not many Latin Americans were familiar with them.

After asking many local friends, I finally found out that the word for “rest home” is “asilo de ancianos”.

So basically, translated directly, it would be called an “elderly asylum” or “elderly shelter”.

In all of the areas of Latin America I lived in during two years, I only saw one rest home.

Since I lived only in the mid-size to smaller pueblos, rest homes may have been more prevalent in larger cities.

Now let’s explore some of the possible reasons why there aren’t as many rest homes in Latin America.

Their culture in regard to elderly family members is very different from our culture here in the U.S. Older family members will customarily live with their children in the same house.

The reason this happens, according to my observation, is that family ties are very strong, and often the elderly person is not financially independent.

In talking to some Latin Americans themselves, they seemed to have the mentality that parents take care of their children when they are younger so that they will, in-turn, take care of them when they get older.

In the U.S., people seem to have more of an independent attitude.

As soon as teenagers get old enough, or get married, their parents will gently, or sometimes not so gently, push them out the door.

When people become elderly, they often want to stay in their own homes or live in a rest home so they don’t burden anyone.

Compared to Latin America, few elderly people in the U.S. live with their children.

As you can imagine, homes could start to fill up fairly fast in just a few years as children get married and grandparents are also living in the home.

As I have mentioned in the past, there is usually a great attitude of respect among family members in Latin America, especially from children to parents and grandparents.”

Like Dave, we re-discovered what family was again. We re-discovered the real value of possessions other then money or what money can buy.

Also it has opened up our eyes to new opportunities for both the locals and some of our friends and family back home. We are part of that 55+ crowd. Life dictates most of us are unable to look after ourselves as we age. As we are aging many of us will need assisted living homes.

Are we moving back to Canada.

Not in the foreseeable future…

The freedom we have grown to prize while growing up in Canada is to strong to let us. We will continue to enjoy and treasure our new found friends and experiences as we continue our journey of how to speak Spanish.

New adventures are calling.

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The Oxford dictionary is the final authority on the English language People respect it a great deal and people all over the world are using it when they are concerned with speak english.

The Oxford dictionary has been around for over 100 years.  It was way back in 1857.  The Philological society determined that current English-language dictionaries weren’t complete. Their plan was to begin from square one. Little did they know the size of the project they had just undertaken.

The development of the Oxford dictionary had taken a big step in 1879 when the society made an agreement with the Oxford University press to begin work on a new dictionary of the English language.  The name was to be the New English Dictionary.  It was planned to be four volumes, 6400 pages.  It would go back as far as 1150 AD.  The goal was to finish the work in a decade. It is a great matter that this lexicon endures as we see contemporary issues depending on whether or not a person is engaged with how to speak italian.

This Oxford dictionary was as far as ant in five years.  Clearly they were behind schedule.  One problem was the constant evolution of English.  While working on new words they were constantly changing the descriptions of the old ones.  That’s not easy while looking at seven centuries of language. The English speech is so important and as referred to before many pursue the model set by this lexicon and the circumstance is relevant when related to how to speak german.

They toiled at this Oxford dictionary for forty years.  More people were brought in to help.  It had expanded to ten volumes.  It covered 400,000 words.  It was now the authority on everything having to do with the English language.  The initial 10 year mission was finally completed 30 years late.

Immediately they set about revising the Oxford dictionary.  In 1933 a supplement was published in the dictionary had expanded to 12 volumes.  This remained until 1957.  That work went on until 1972 when four more volumes were added.

In 1982 editors decided to bring the Oxford dictionary into the computer age.  The editors began transferring it from paper to electronic format.  It took $13.5 million to accomplish this.  It was a 5 year task.  In 1989 a second edition was published.  It’s 22,000 pages over 20 volumes.

The Oxford dictionary later was published on CD-ROM, and is now available online.  What an interesting journey from concept to the present.

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The Oxford dictionary is called the definitive record of the English language People respect it a great deal whereas individuals all over the planet are utilising this when they have an interest in speak english.

The Oxford dictionary is over 100 years old.  It was way back in 1857.  A society of linguists believed a more complete dictionary was needed. Their plan was to begin from square one. The project was much larger than they first thought.

In 1879 Oxford University press began work on what would become the Oxford dictionary.  The name was to be the New English Dictionary.  It was planned to be four volumes, 6400 pages.  It would go back as far as 1150 AD.  The goal was to finish the work in a decade. It is a good thing that this dictionary exists as we see parallel publications depending on whether or not someone is concerned with how to speak spanish.

Five years into the creation of this early version of the Oxford dictionary they had only reached the word ant.  Clearly they were behind schedule.  Part of the reason that it was taking so long was that the English language constantly evolves.  They had to keep track of new words as well as the new meanings of old words.  That’s not easy while looking at seven centuries of language. The English speech is so important and as referred to before many pursue the model set by this lexicon and the circumstance is relevant when related to how to speak german.

They toiled at this Oxford dictionary for forty years.  More people were brought in to help.  Now the work had 10 volumes.  It encompassed over 400,000 words.  It was now the authority on everything having to do with the English language.  The initial 10 year mission was finally completed 30 years late.

It wasn’t even in people’s hands before the editors began revising the Oxford dictionary.  It reached 12 volumes with a supplement in 1933.  This remained until 1957.  A new supplement was finally finished and published from 1972 through 1986 in four volumes.

In 1982 editors decided to bring the Oxford dictionary into the computer age.  It was digitized.  It took $13.5 million to accomplish this.  It took five years to complete.  The electronic version led to a second edition published in 1989.  This printed version is 20 volumes containing a total of 22,000 pages.

Now the Oxford dictionary is available on the Internet.  It’s come a long way from a simple idea.

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I often wonder how many enthusiastic people have said “I want to learn Spanish” and then given up in annoyance when they discovered that what they’d been taught was of no use whatsoever to them in the Real World. It’s like going to Spain after taking a Spanish class at school and realising that being able to say “The dog sleeps quietly under the chair” is not particularly beneficial when all you want to do is have a bit of witty banter with someone cute on the beach. Many, many language students have been put off by their experiences with courses teaching “incorrect” Spanish, or dated words and phrases that would be not be spoken by any native Spanish speaker.

Nowadays, thankfully, online language learning programmes have stepped in to offer courses and software that are specifically designed to give you a proper grasp of real conversation skills and vocabulary that you’ll be able to use in day-to-day life, whether that’s in a business situation, or in a social setting. If you want to learn Spanish, it’s much more satisfying to come away from each lesson with a few more useful phrases committed to memory than struggling repeatedly with grammar rules and dated, irrelevant roleplays like you might have done at school.

So why not get started right away? For Example, take a look at this short list of basic Spanish phrases. All of them are useful in Real Life situations, and if you take a little time to master them, you’ll give yourself a great confidence boost, which will keep you motivated and eager to build on your knowledge. The more practice you get, the more you deepen your knowledge of the language, which makes learning all the complicated grammar and pronunciation rules so much easier.

No hablo español – I don’t speak Spanish.
 

Believe it or not, this is the most useful sentence you can learn in any language! It’s particularly useful if you’re going to be travelling – all travellers have experienced the despairing feeling that comes with a native speaker pouring forth what sounds like gibberish, but it really does give you a tiny sense of accomplishment if you can interrupt the person by explaining that you don’t understand in their own language. It actually earns you a lot more respect from the native speaker, too! They will appreciate a tourist making the effort to speak basic Spanish words and phrases, and will very often then go out of their way to help you if you show that you’re trying. So, for this reason, try to a few “common courtesy” words:
 

Hola – Hello

Por favor – Please

Gracias – Thank you

¿Cuánto? – How much?

Perdón – Sorry

No entiendo – I don’t understand

¿Habla inglés? – Do you speak English?

Online language sources can provide you with a really solid foundation if you want to learn Spanish, giving you the confidence to start speaking whatever you’ve learned on a daily basis. And my the number one tip: you want to learn to speak Spanish? Then start speaking Spanish! You’ll be surprised at just how quickly you can build up your range of vocabulary and phrases if you make the effort to practise when you can. Give it a go – and start learning Spanish today!
 
 

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I cannot help smiling when I browse the internet or I visit a book store and I see one of those language guides that say something like:”Learn Japanese in 7 days”. We all know that learning a language like learn spanish is something that takes time and that everyone wants to reduce that time as much as possible. But reducing it to a blink of an eye it’s a fairytale. Never mind what I think, but remember that looking for ways to learn a new language in one week is an empty quest, because those ways don’t exist for people like you and me, maybe only for those who unfortunately suffer from autism, as they perceive letters and words in a different way. The best thing to do is to try and plan your time in a way that you can gradually learn the language.

Learning a language online is a really good option. Of course, a real life course held by a teacher can be useful also, but such a course requires you to go to certain locations and most of the times you can’t decide your own schedule. It’s tough to actually go to these classes when you are already in a hurry. If we are learning online like learn modern spanish, we have nothing to worry about. When you feel like learning you can simply click and continue the lesson you started yesterday.

It’s better to divide the session over more months, not just one month of intensive learning. It’s proved that too much information at once will cause the braid to overload and actually stock nothing. Don’t underestimate this aspect: if you have fun while you’re learning you will be surprised of the result.

Learning and having fun at the same time is a real treat. If we thing something is amusing, then our brains will response by assimilating that information fast. For those people that do lots of tasks every day and are too stressed out to start a learning operation. It’s obvious that you will take a lot longer to learn the respective language, but this doesn’t mean that it will be a lot of work.

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Have you ever felt in your mind that you have the urge to learn how to speak, write and understand Spanish even just for the thrill of it? But as you can see, there are many reasons why you need to go head-on with this is this really crosses your mind. Spanish is considered by many as their second language no matter where they live or what their race is. On the boob tube, you can see lots and lots of programs that are in Spanish and fortunately, some of them are being dubbed in the language that you’ve been accustomed to. Spanish-speaking afternoon TV shows are quite popular today and it’s beneficial if you can comprehend it and learn how to speak it in the fun and interactive way. So, are there any conversational way on the Net that can help you learn Spanish. Actually, there are more than you can handle but the top 3 here are the most popular. Try to see and individually check each one of helpful Spanish-learning software.

Rosetta Stone

According to this Rosetta Stone review, this software makes use of the well-appreciated and well-presented audio-visual technique. The procedure of learning Spanish can be innate and at the same time, interactive and that is the reason why, when you want to learn Spanish the “conversational” technique and not the conventional orthodox way, like an old school where you stare constantly at an old Spanish teacher, Rosetta Stone should be your best pick.

Synergy Spanish

Well, here is another best pick and according to a Synergy Spanish review site, this program aptly called Synergy Spanish can also help you learn Espanol the “conversational” and interactive way. It’s just the same as Rosetta Stone but the thing about this is, it will make you go for a “test drive” before making your purchase final to make sure that this is what you really need to learn Spanish.

Learn Spanish Like Crazy

Now, this has got to be the most controversial Spanish-learning software of all, in a personal point of view from this writer. Well, for one thing, learning Spanish like crazy for this writer can only mean one thing. This has got to be the fastest way to learn Spanish….like crazy. Well, according to this Learn Spanish Like Crazy review, it is and it will make a bilingual speaker out of you and you know why, it’s because it will teach you how to become and sound like an authentic Latin American. With this software, you don’t need to memorize anything while on training, there is not even some drill or exercise. Upon using this, it will get right down to business.

So, that’s it and have you already decided in one from them? Do you still feel a little bit lost in trying to choose what is best for you? Well, you can follow any of the links above to get to its site and know more about them and you can also get to learn more options for learning Spanish the easy and convenient way.

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